40-square-foot raft?

Saturday, April 20, 2002 5:02 AM

From: Arnold Nelson
To: letters NYTimes <letters@nytimes.com.>

Editor, The New York Times:

The Friday, April 19, 2002 obituary of Thor Heyerdahl, anthropologist and adventurer, describes his"...101-day, 4,300-mile drifting voyage..." across the Pacific Ocean on "...a 40-square-foot raft...."

If the Kon-Tiki was 40 square feet (no more than 6 feet 4 inches wide,) his voyage would have been remarkable if only 300 miles in one week. The obituary further describes how he "... overcamei nnumerable practical obstacles right down to the cutting of the long balsa logs he needed...." Even if made from only two, 20 foot long, one foot wide logs,it still would have been a feat, considering he was accompanied by "five friends."

Without looking it up I think the Kon-Tiki was a 40-foot-square raft.

Arnold H. Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago, Illinois 60640